Thursday, May 14, 2009

My community service was more non conventional then anything as I led dance lessons, alongside fellow Classmate Melissa Fromm. We led dozens of dances in the hours we have collected in our visits at the Madison ARC of Cortland, a home for individuals with developmental disabilities. We made many various accommodations while lesson planning that was necessary such as using poly spots to direct where the next dance step is directed, and sequenced arm movements that would subsidize for an inability to use legs for the individuals that were designated to wheelchairs. To make it even more interesting for the individuals we were teachings dance to, we often asked what songs and dances they would like to learn and prepared both before the days of the visit(intra-task). It was a wonderful experience, providing these individuals with laughter and joy from the attention we gave them. We made friendships and left a lasting impact on them in my opinion. This experience actually is the reason for my decision in making "adaptive PE" my concentration of study, not for marketability but to make in impact in many more lives of the differently abled.

Did you know that Autism affects one in every 165 children? Better yet do you know what Autism is? Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. Although there is no cure to be found, science and technologies have configured various strategies to treat specific effects of Autism through therapy and behavioral interventions. Autism results from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, resulting in impaired social interaction and communication skills. There are interactive games devloped that aid children and adults in helping them slowly fine tune their abilities to communicate. Face Sayis an pc game that allows Autistic individuals with their recognition of various facial expressions. I have made a short youtube video that may give you a visual on how the games look like. Often at times they have an inability to distinguish certain facial expressions, this software has numerous of activities that give a sufficient amount of practice in depicting such. There are other methods that are more physically hands on in helping autistic children with their associations, like the "dream gym". Keeping autistic children physically active enables them to burn off excess energy, thus in return allowing them to concentrate on particular tasks. Like our common theme of being physically active and combining technology to promote being physically educated; it arises here in the case of many children and adults living with autism. We as future Physical Educators, are responsible for shaping programs that try to meet every students need and abilities.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

PART B:After visiting the websites posted and the many links that followed, we were asked questions based on what we had read and saw in the videos that came about. The web site takes us to Canada, located in North America right about the Northern borders of good old USA. The location of the website is also from Canada. If I were asked to locate Canada on the map I would hope to be able to do so. After watching the video, the topic struck me as interesting, as how correlations have been found between physical activity and learning. As a Physical Education major, reading and seeing that people are now taking an account associating active lifestyles with enhancing an adolescents ability to learn. The PE teacher was not involved in the experiment due to the fact that all the physical activity took place in the classroom, with the teacher. The children performed twenty minutes of cardio, before they started the actual lesson. Results of the study have shown that roughly 15 minutes or more breaks from the classroom will better the students grades. This theory results from the way they were stimulating their brains and keeping the impulses continuous throughout the day, ultimately allowing them to say focused when it came time to learn. The outcomes relate to the NYS standards, but they are just as different from them. They are similar in the sense that they want every student to be active and develop healthy lifestyles without really concerning what students skill levels are. As long as students are competent in a specific skill and can base that on what activities are performed. The teachers do not look as much in to the cognitive and affective goal and objectives as PE teachers do.